Why it works: Cassia and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 116 recipes. Both carry cinnamyl acetate, which smells sweet aromatic, cinnamon. The science ↓
Sweet Pickles
Ingredients
Directions
Brine the cucumbers
Wash cucumbers.
Cover cucumbers with a brine made from 1 pint of salt and 1 gallon of water.
Let stand for one week, skimming off scum as it forms.
Drain cucumbers.
Cover cucumbers with boiling water mixed with 1 tablespoon of alum.
Let stand for 24 hours.
Split cucumbers in half.
Cover cucumbers again with boiling water.
Let stand for another 24 hours.
Make the syrup and pickle
Transfer cucumbers to a crock.
Cover cucumbers with a boiling mixture of ½ ounce celery seeds, ½ ounce cassia buds, ½ ounce stick cinnamon, 6 cups sugar, and 5 pints vinegar.
Let stand for one week.
Drain off the liquid.
Heat the liquid to boiling with 1 cup of sugar.
Return the liquid to the crock.
Heat the liquid to boiling without adding more sugar.
Jar and seal
Pack cucumbers in glass jars.
Cover cucumbers with the boiling liquid.
Seal jars.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Cassia + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together116 recipes
Shared aroma: cinnamyl acetate (sweet aromatic, cinnamon).
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Celery + cinnamontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,009 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Cucumber + celerytop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,745 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
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Cucumber + cinnamontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together874 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Cucumber + vinegartop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,734 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cucumbers
- Form the pickle itself, becoming crisp-tender and taking on the flavour of the brine and syrup.
- Sea salt
- Draws water out of the cucumbers and seasons them during the brine stage.
- Alum
- Helps the cucumbers stay firm during the repeated soaking in hot liquid.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the pickle and balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
- Vinegar
- Provides the sour acidity that preserves the pickles and defines their tang.
- Cinnamon, cassia buds and celery seeds
- Add warm, spiced aroma to the syrup that soaks into the cucumbers.
The step that matters
Keep the cucumbers covered in liquid during the long soaks. Cucumbers that rise above the brine or syrup can soften and spoil. Keeping them fully submerged maintains firmness and protects against mould and off-flavours.
Swap the celery
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, cassia, cinnamon, sugar, vinegar):
- Clovefits better
- Allspicefits better
- Cardamomfits better
- Celerythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, cassia, cinnamon, sugar, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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